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A day after Republicans endorsed her as their candidate in the 22nd Congressional District, Houston Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs was on hand at a packed East End event Friday, sharing the limelight with political heavyweights.

But to join their ranks by keeping GOP control of the seat vacated by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Sekula-Gibbs faces a daunting task of increasing her name recognition and educating the party faithful on write-in ballots in less than three months.

"This is a challenge, but Republicans are eager and willing to meet this challenge," she said Friday before heading into a campaign strategy meeting.

Sekula-Gibbs may not be the lone Republican write-in candidate. Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace, who earlier said he would run as a write-in candidate even if the party endorsed someone else, is "considering his options," said Fort Bend County Republican Chairman Gary Gillen.

Wallace did not return calls.

In a closed meeting Thursday night, GOP precinct chairs in the district endorsed Sekula-Gibbs as their preferred write-in candidate. No Republican will appear on the ballot because DeLay stepped down after winning the nomination in March. A court ruled the party could not replace him on the ballot.

If Wallace and Sekula-Gibbs both wage write-in campaigns, the split Republican vote could keep either of them from beating Democrat Nick Lampson, a former congressman with a $2 million war chest.

"If Wallace stays in, she has no shot," said Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, a Republican who also had been mentioned as a possible candidate.

The only candidates on the ballot will be Lampson and Libertarian Bob Smither, who is encouraging Republicans to vote for him to keep the district in conservative hands.

Sekula-Gibbs joined numerous other political VIPS at Eastwood Health Clinic Friday morning for the announcement that Texas will receive nearly half a billion dollars in hurricane relief funds.

She did not speak at the event, but Mayor Bill White acknowledged her and thanked her for her work in helping hurricane evacuees.

Assessing her problems

Even if Sekula-Gibbs becomes the lone write-in candidate in the 22nd District, she'll have to wage a difficult, multi-pronged campaign, said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein.

In addition to raising her own profile — taking positions on issues and depicting Lampson as non-representative of the district — she will have to raise voter awareness of the write-in process, he said.

Electronic ballots are used in most of the district, which includes parts of Harris, Fort Bend, Brazoria and Galveston counties.

Voting booths will display the names of write-in candidates who register before Aug. 28 and are certified by the Texas secretary of state. Voters will have to navigate to the write-in option on the electronic ballot, call up a keyboard display and spin a dial to spell out a candidates' name a letter at a time.

David Beirne, spokesman for Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, said misspelling a candidates' name won't disqualify the vote if a voter's intention is clear.

The 2004 Democratic candidate in the 22nd District, Richard Morrison, received about 67,000 votes, Bettencourt said, and Lampson probably will get that many Nov. 7.

Competing coffers

The highest vote total ever drawn by a write-in candidate in Harris County was about 40,000 for an unsuccessful 1992 judicial candidate, Bettencourt said, and Harris County's population is much greater than the congressional district's.

"Lampson is in the driver's seat," he said.

Stein said write-in candidates would need to match Lampson's spending to have a chance at beating him.

"I don't think these candidates will be able to raise the kind of money they need," he said.

Lampson campaign manager Mike Malaise said his candidate isn't focused on the write-in component of the race.

"It doesn't make much difference as far as what we're going to do as a campaign," he said. "Rather than try to figure out which one of these candidates to run against, we're just going to continue moving forward with Nick Lampson's positive message."